Photo by Jim Jung. All rights reserved.

Celandine Poppies

Celandine Poppies reappear in the early spring, capturing their share of the sunlight and "fatten up" in readiness for blooming and seed production before the trees put out their own leaves and cut off the sunlight to the forest floor.

While other wildflowers might shrink back from the cold, the bright yellow Celandine Poppies seem to revel in it. I've seen them blooming happily in snowstorms. Assuming the last week of March is warm and sunny you're almost guaranteed a few tentative blooms.

There is some controversy about this plant's origin. Many learned sources consider it an import from Europe brought here by the earliest pioneers. Other equally learned sources consider it a native wildflower. I've not made up my mind about this issue but I find it telling that it's most often found around old abandoned home sites or other places people used to live. But whether or not it's native this plant, like humans, has adapted to and adopted this continent as its home and is here to stay.

This plant reaches up to two feet in height (later in the season). Look for the distinctive gray-green, deeply lobed Celandine Poppy leaves in well-watered rich lowland forests. The large, bright yellow flowers which appear in April are impossible to miss. The woodlands around La Rue swamp are particularly rich in this species.

Offsite Link:

• Celandine Poppy page on the Missouri Deptartment of Conservation's Grow Native! site

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